


Intercession

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [83]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 05:53:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18492709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: “Dinner tomorrow?” Jared asks.“Sure,” Bryce says. “Sounds good.”It doesn’t sound good to Jared, but whatever. He guesses they’re doing it.





	Intercession

Jared has a very busy week pretending he doesn’t have parents. Well, Jared does other things than embracing his newly orphaned existence by ignoring all his parents’ calls: he’s started training a little, just inasmuch as he’s working out with Bryce in their building’s gym, easing himself in so he isn’t pathetically out of shape when he starts actual training. It seems weird that just a couple weeks with your foot off the gas can fuck you as much as a few weeks with your foot constantly on it, but there it is. Combine the two, your body doesn’t even feel like yours for a bit. It was mortifying how fast Jared tired during their first workout. If it was in front of anyone but Bryce he would have never lived it down.

Jared also finally hangs out with Chaz, does a ton of research on some of the local pro training, up to and including visiting a few places — none of them feel like the right fit so far, but he’s going to keep looking and he’s going to keep ignoring Bryce’s increasingly unsubtle offers to arrange something with the group he’s going back to, because not only is it probably super expensive, it’s a bunch of top-tier NHLers, and Jared does not feel like feeding an inferiority complex this summer. He incessantly pokes Bryce until Bryce throws his hands up and agrees to schedule a meeting with a family lawyer to talk them through how a pre-nup would work. He is, in other words, very busy as a newly minted orphan.

His grandma calls a week in, and he kind of wants to let it go to voicemal, but it’s not right. She’s his _grandma_.

“Did mom ask you to call?” Jared asks, once she’s through telling him everything that’s going on with literally every member of his mom’s side of the family.

“No,” she says. “She just seemed a little worried about you when I talked to her yesterday, though she didn’t tell me why. Is everything going okay?”

“I got engaged, grandma,” Jared says.

“That’s lovely,” she says. “When do I get to meet him?”

“I—” Jared says. “I don’t know.”

“What’s his name?” she asks. She seems very chill about Jared being engaged to a dude whose name she doesn’t even know. Jared’s mom should take lessons. Not about the not even knowing the name thing, obviously, that would be good cause to be unchill, but.

“Bryce,” Jared says, after a moment of hesitation. 

“Like that Marcus boy on the Flames?” she says.

“Yeah,” Jared says. “Like that Marcus boy on the Flames.”

“Is he handsome?” she asks.

Jared’s grandma officially has the best priorities ever.

“Very,” Jared says.

“I’m so happy for you,” she says brightly.

“Yeah,” Jared says. “Me too.”

She continues to ask a bunch of questions about Bryce, some Jared answers truthfully, some Jared kind of hedges on — his grandma isn’t a big secret keeper, so if he does admit it’s ‘that Marcus boy on the Flames’, his entire family will know within the day. She ends it off with a cheerful ‘congratulations’ and a much less cheerful ‘call your mother’, and Jared has decided to take one to heart and ignore the other.

“I told my grandma about you,” Jared says when Bryce gets back from shopping with Chaz. There are way too many bags of clothes in their hallway right now. Bryce has a tie problem. And shoe problem. Honestly he has an every article of clothing problem. “Well, not that you were you, just that I was engaged to a guy named Bryce.”

“What’d she say?” Bryce asks, face a little inscrutable.

“That it was lovely?” Jared says. “And when I said your name was Bryce, she was like ‘oh, like that Marcus boy!’. She’s a Flames fan to the core.”

Bryce grins a little. 

“Is it okay?” Jared says. “I didn’t ask, I’m — sorry I didn’t ask.”

“I mean, my nana and papa _met_ you,” Bryce says.

“Yeah, but you also know I’m cool with your family knowing,” Jared says. 

“She’s your grandma,” Bryce counters, and Jared resists asking if Elaine’s mom knows if Bryce is gay yet, let alone engaged. “Did your parents ask her to call you?”

“Apparently not, and she’s not the kind of person who lies,” Jared says. “But I’m sure she heard there were like, ‘issues’, or whatever. She gets worried when people fight.”

“Yeah,” Bryce says, then, for the tenth time this week, “You really should talk to your parents.”

“I don’t really have anything to say to them right now I haven’t already said,” Jared says, probably also for the tenth time this week.

“Babe,” Bryce says.

“I don’t!” Jared says.

“I don’t want them to think that I’m, like, straining your relationship,” Bryce says.

“You’re not,” Jared says. “It’s like — they’re not respecting my choices. And that choice is you, yeah, but it’s not — it’s not you, you know? It’s that they don’t trust me when I know I’m making the right decision.”

“Yeah,” Bryce says. “But like. Are they going to see it that way?”

Probably not, but fuck them.

“Jared,” Bryce says, because Jared’s face clearly says that thought exactly. 

“Fine, I’ll call them,” Jared says. “I don’t know about seeing them, but.”

“I can come if you want,” Bryce says.

“You really don’t—” Jared starts.

“No, I didn’t say that right,” Bryce interrupts. “I want to come next time you go to dinner there, if that’s okay with you.”

Jared chews his lip. “I’ll call my mom,” he says finally. “But like, no way I’m going to dinner if that goes south.”

“Fair enough,” Bryce says. “I can give you some privacy?”

“You want me to call right _now_?” Jared asks.

Bryce shrugs. “Better to get it over with.”

“Fine,” Jared sighs. “I guess you can put your new stuff away.”

Bryce pouts.

“Seriously, don’t you dare leave seventeen bags of shit in our hall,” Jared says.

“It’s like maybe eight bags,” Bryce mutters, but he thankfully disappears into their room with all seventeen bags. Jared has no idea how their closet is going to fit more stuff, but Bryce will find a way. 

His mom’s at work, which is honestly good, because she keeps conversations short when she is, and she doesn’t have a private office or anything, so she doesn’t get like, personal. She picks up on the second ring with a crisp, “Susan Matheson,” like she didn’t bother to check the caller ID.

“Hi,” Jared says.

“Hi honey,” she says, tone changing immediately. “How are you?”

The correct answer is probably not ‘still engaged to Bryce, sucks to be you’, so Jared suppresses it. “Fine,” he says. “Grandma called.”

“I told her not to interfere,” she sighs, which is probably true.

“I told her I was engaged,” Jared says. “She was pretty happy for me.”

“That’s good,” she says, sounding so normal it’s like their awful fucking conversation never happened. “What are you doing tomorrow? Why don’t you come for dinner?”

Jared — honestly doesn’t want to, but he has a feeling if he turns it down he’ll have Bryce giving him sad ‘fix it’ eyes. And like — Bryce and Elaine talk basically every day, and don’t seem to fight ever, so Jared gets why it makes Bryce uncomfortable, but it’s not really the same. Still.

“Bryce wants to come,” Jared says. “If that’s okay.”

“That’s fine,” his mom says after a moment. “You know he’s always invited. Why don’t you come over around six, have him come at seven? You can help me make some dinner, make sure it’s something Bryce likes.”

“He’s not really picky,” Jared says. “As long as it’s decently healthy, he’s good.”

“Jared,” she says. He’s not stupid, he knows it was code for ‘so we can talk without Bryce being there’, he just — he thinks they’ll behave with Bryce there? Hopes. Not that there’s honestly a lot of evidence to support that assumption, especially considering his dad. But his mom is fully capable of basic etiquette, unlike some people, so they’d be on comparatively good behaviour. 

That makes it sound like he’s using Bryce as a shield, but Bryce did offer, and honestly, Jared doesn’t want to keep defending his decisions to them when he knows he’s making the right ones, and the only people who have an actual say in whether they get married are him and Bryce.

He continues to play stupid for long enough that his mom gives up — she probably would have kept on it if she wasn’t on a work line, but she gets another call coming in, thankfully, so he’s expected at seven.

“So?” Bryce asks, appearing in the living room with uncanny timing. There is no way he’s managed to put everything away.

“All your new shit better not just be on our bed,” Jared says.

“Jared,” Bryce says.

“Dinner tomorrow?” Jared asks.

“Sure,” Bryce says. “Sounds good.”

It doesn’t sound good to Jared, but whatever. He guesses they’re doing it.

It takes literally fifteen minutes to clear the comforter off before they go to bed that night, but only because Jared crosses his arms and glares and makes Bryce do it all himself while Bryce mutters about how mean Jared is. Jared has no sympathy. There are seven belts on the bed. _Seven._

Bryce is wearing one of his new belts when they head out to his parents the next night, along with a dress shirt and suit pants, because he’s absurd. Jared is defiantly wearing a pair of Bryce’s Flames sweats. They’re a little too big, but they’re comfy, and bonus is it might piss his dad off if he realises they’re Bryce’s, so. He also defiantly wears his ring, and he can see Bryce glancing over at it a few times during the ride over.

“Okay?” Bryce asks when they pull up in front of Jared’s parents’ house.

“I feel like that’s something I should be asking you,” Jared says.

Bryce shrugs. “Are you?” he asks.

“Not really,” Jared says. “Let’s get this over with, okay?”

“Sure,” Bryce says, does this obvious little look around the street before he leans in and kisses Jared. Jared wants to hold on, but they shouldn’t push their luck. “It’ll be fine,” he says, and Jared doesn’t snort, but only because Bryce looks like he needs the reassurance.

“Sure,” Jared says. “It’ll be fine.”

*

Dinner is awkward. Shocking. His dad’s a grumpy stone, which Jared guesses is better than him being passive-aggressive — well, the silent treatment _is_ passive-aggressive, but at least there aren’t any barbed comments. His mom keeps asking them questions about their week in this overly cheerful, totally unnatural voice, and Bryce keeps answering them in a pretty unnatural voice himself. The word marriage does not come up even once.

Erin is somehow the least awkward person at the table, which Jared is pretty sure has never happened before. She spends her time whining about the fact mom and dad want her to get a summer job or do some volunteering. “Jared didn’t have to,” Erin says, giving him a look like this is an argument she’s used before, but she thinks it’ll work better in front of him.

“Jared had hockey,” his dad says.

“Weird, I could have sworn that was a winter sport,” Erin says. 

Jared’s honestly kind of grateful for her bitching about this, because it gets his dad into the conversation and it keeps things firmly off of him and Bryce. He doesn’t say a word himself, just shovelling food into his mouth — healthy, at least his mom listened — and wondering if his mom’s going to kick Erin upstairs again so they can turn in on Jared and Bryce. Or maybe they’ll kick Bryce upstairs too, who knows?

It — turns out not to work that way.

“Mr. And Mrs. Matheson, could I talk to you for a minute?” Bryce asks when everyone’s plates are cleared. “In private?”

Jared’s parents exchange a look, one he barely notices because he’s trying to meet Bryce’s eye, though he’s not obliging.

“Of course,” his mom says after a moment, then, “I told you, Bryce, it’s Susan.”

‘What the fuck?’ Jared mouths at Bryce, but either Bryce doesn’t see him or he’s ignoring him. 

As soon as they leave the room, Erin’s standing up and going to the door. “Don’t eavesdrop,” Jared says, but it sounds weak, considering he’s standing right behind her when he says it.

“Do you think if he asks for permission again and they say no you have to get un-engaged?” Erin asks.

“Shut the _fuck_ up, Erin,” Jared says. 

She actually does. They needle in this family, but they don’t jab where it actually hurts, at least usually. Or maybe she’s just being quiet so she can hear better. No one’s saying anything in the living room, though, up until his mom says something too low to hear and comes right back into the kitchen, sighing when she sees them hovering in the doorway. Her sigh sounds simultaneously disappointed and unsurprised.

“It’s a beautiful day, why don’t you two sit in the backyard?” she asks, shooing them both, then literally pushing them when neither move — obviously a middle-aged woman with an average build cannot successfully move Jared anywhere he doesn’t want to go, but he can’t just plant his feet and not budge, it’s beneath him — right out the back door. She then audibly locks it.

“This is my house!” Jared calls through the glass.

“It isn’t, actually,” Erin says.

“It’s my—” Jared yells, and then stops before he says ‘fiancé’ aloud. Their neighbours on either side have known him most his life, and it’s not super warm out, but it’s a nice enough day after a long enough winter that there could easily be someone on the other side of the fence.

“It’s my fiancé,” Jared mutters, then goes to sit on the top step, because he has a feeling they’re going to be locked out for a bit. Unless it goes terribly, he guesses. He doesn’t even know what _it_ is. Asking for permission again, like Erin said? Trying to let Jared’s parents know how serious he is about wanting to marry him? Bryce didn’t mention anything to him; Jared didn’t even suspect he was going to do it, and he’s simultaneously furious about it and irritatingly touched. 

He’s also worried they’re going to hurt Bryce’s feelings. Bryce’s feelings are easily hurt, and neither of his parents are known to pull punches, even if his mom phrases things a little more diplomatically than his dad. It took Jared literal years to learn how to avoid hurting Bryce accidentally — hell, sometimes he _still_ does it — so if it’s two people who aren’t trying to spare Bryce’s feelings, well —

“You look like you’re going to throw up,” Erin says. For once there isn’t glee in her voice: it just comes out as an observation.

“Can you not?” Jared says tiredly anyway, because honestly, he does feel kind of sick.

“Sorry,” Erin says, then after a moment, “Getting married, huh?”

“Yeah,” Jared says. “Getting married.”

“Cool,” Erin says.

“Cool?” Jared says, glancing over at her. “‘Cool’?”

“Yeah,” Erin says. “Do I get to be maid of honour?”

“I’m not actually a bride, Erin,” Jared says.

Erin shrugs. “Everyone should have a maid of honour,” she says. “I don’t see why guys only have guys and girls only have girls. It’s stupid. Plus, it’s not like you’re going to be doing the white dress, dad walking you down the aisle thing anyway.”

“Fair enough,” Jared says. His dad walking him down the aisle is even less likely than the white dress; he’d probably dig his heels in and refuse to move in silent protest. “I dunno, we’re probably not doing anything before I’m twenty. We’re in the like, talking to lawyers about money stuff stage, not the wedding arrangements one.”

“Money stuff?” Erin asks.

“I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed he’s loaded,” Jared says. “And I’m, you know, not. And even if I start making NHL money, he’s still going to be pulling in a way higher salary.”

“Does that make you the trophy wife?” Erin asks. “Because honestly, he’s better looking than you, so that’s stupid.”

“Thanks, Erin,” Jared says, though it’s not like he disagrees, obviously. Better looking, more talented, nicer, even though he tries to hide it from basically everyone else, better at the whole relationship thing in general. Jared would be stupid not to want to hold onto him for the rest of his life. 

It really is a nice evening, and it’s a shame Jared can’t enjoy it because he’s busy wondering what the hell Bryce is saying to his parents, what the hell they’re saying back.

“Congratulations,” Erin says, out of the blue.

“Huh?” Jared says.

“I’m sure mom and dad didn’t say it, so,” Erin says. “Congratulations. You guys are really great together. They’re being stupid if they don’t get that.”

Jared swallows hard.

“Don’t be sappy and hug me,” Erin says quickly, but it’s too late, and Erin hits his chest weakly before submitting, hugging him back after a moment. 

“You’re not the first person to give congrats,” Jared says. “But you’re like, the first Matheson, you know?”

“They’ll get over it,” Erin says. 

Jared snorts.

“Seriously,” Erin says. “Think about how far dad’s come. He even put Bryce in his playoff pool.”

“He didn’t tell me that,” Jared says.

“Obviously,” Erin says. “I wonder if he’s just mad about the engagement because Bryce got knocked out first round and fucked his pool up.”

Jared slaps her arm, and she slaps right back, hard.

“Jesus, Erin,” Jared hisses.

“You literally get checked by dudes twice my size, stop bitching,” Erin says.

Jared rubs his arm. “Has it seemed like forever to you?” Jared asks. “I feel like they’ve been talking for forever.”

“Point. ‘No’ doesn’t take that long to say,” Erin says, then immediately. “Sorry. I keep — sorry. I know it’s shitty.”

“Maybe they broke open a bottle of champagne to celebrate our engagement and just forgot we were outside,” Jared says with zero hope whatsoever.

“Sure,” Erin says, almost sounding convincing, and she gets another one armed hug for that, complaining the whole time.

His dad’s the one to release them from the backyard, and Jared doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Well, it’s a good thing in that he’s not like, currently murdering Bryce, and Bryce is in fact alive in the living room, but he looks like he’s about to cry, and Jared goes over to him immediately, glaring at his mom.

“Anyone want a glass of wine?” His mom asks. Her voice sounds weird in a way Jared can’t figure out. “We have that nice one Bryce brought that time.”

“I’m driving,” Bryce says. “But — J?”

“Let’s have a glass of wine,” his mom says, when Jared doesn’t answer, trying to figure out if that was Bryce asking Jared to make excuses to leave. “You can tell me about your wedding plans.”

Which. 

What?

“Um,” Jared says.

“Don,” his mom calls. “Can you open that nice bottle of wine Bryce got us?”

His dad pops his head into the doorway. “Why?” he asks.

“Because I’d like some,” his mom says. 

His dad sighs, loud and dramatic. “Fine,” he says.

“You want a splash, Erin?” his mom asks.

Erin gives Jared a wide-eyed look, and Jared gives her one right back.

“Okay?” Erin says.

“Wait, did they actually just break open a bottle of champagne to celebrate your engagement?” Erin whispers to Jared when his mom goes into the kitchen, and Jared has to bite back a slightly hysterical laugh, because it kind of feels like that. 

It’s red wine, unfortunately, which Jared doesn’t like as much as white, finds too bitter, but he doesn’t mind it right now, his mom asking them questions about their plans that they don’t really have answers for yet, but like — Jared wants to. Even his dad being noticeably silent can’t bring him down much, especially since that silence isn’t glowering, this time, so much as just — silence.

 _You had him in your playoff pool_ , Jared thinks triumphantly at his dad.

Jared bows them out after he finishes his wine, because Bryce isn’t drinking and while he doesn’t look like he did when Jared walked back in, he still looks a little awkward, out of his depth. Also, selfishly, Jared wants to be alone with him so he can grill him about what the hell he said. He lasts all of thirty seconds into the drive before he blurts out, “What did you even _say_ to them?”

Bryce shrugs, but he’s got a little smile on his face like he’s pleased with himself. Which, no wonder, if he can somehow get Jared’s mom on his side in less than ten minutes. 

“Please tell me the magic words, because I’ve never been able to change my mom’s mind that fast ever,” Jared says.

Bryce shrugs again. “I just asked them to trust you,” he says. “Because you’re like, the most responsible person ever, so.”

“That’s it?” Jared asks.

“I mean,” Bryce says. “There was some other stuff.”

“Some other stuff,” Jared repeats.

“Yeah,” Bryce says. “But like, your mom told me I could re-use it for my vows, so I’m going to save it.”

Jared laughs. 

“What?” Bryce asks.

“You’re completely unbelievable,” Jared says.

“In a good way, though?” Bryce asks hopefully.

“Yeah,” Jared says. “Yeah, Bryce, in a good way.”

Bryce turns to him, beaming.

“Watch the road, loser,” Jared says. “You’ll burn out whatever goodwill you got if you wreck your car.”

“Okay,” Bryce says, turning his beam to face forward, and at the next red light Jared leans in, presses his mouth to the corner of of that smile so he can taste it.


End file.
